June 12, 2013
Dear Family and Friends—
At
long last, a letter. It’s been a
full 10 days since I’ve written.
If I can’t write on Sunday or Monday, then it has to go to Wednesday. Weather report: just like with so many places, if you
don’t like the weather, then wait a while, it will change. I think we got 4” of rain in one week,
the reason why it’s so green here.
It’s been hot and muggy to now, cool and breezy. Lynn reminded me we have been on our
mission for six months. Going too
fast.
A
week ago Monday was spent cooking and baking. I needed to make bread for our treat at home evening
(homemade bread with peanut butter and jelly—well received). The chicken was for the next day. We’re getting worried about FHE as many
of the regulars have stopped coming.
We had just 5 ward members come, but there were plenty of
missionaries. We have been gaining
on missionaries because the Spanish missionaries are now coming even though
technically, they aren’t supposed to.
We found out yesterday that the Spanish Ward (Midwood 2) has been
without a bishop for three weeks!
Apparently he found a job on Long Island and up and left! It will be interesting to see if there
is a new bishop called this Sunday.
Tuesday
Lynn and I took our julienned chicken and ourselves to the mission office for a
women’s meeting. All the senior
sisters were invited to this one.
The men were there to set tables, get food on the serving tables, serve
the sisters and clean up—how sweet is that?!? We had one large meeting to start out with then over the
course of the day, there were 4 break-out sessions and then ended up with
another meeting with all there. We
saw a video of Pres. Uchtdorf talking at the Young Women’s meeting held just
before Conference and then discussed the talk. For lunch we
had a gigantic salad bar with literally enough food for 200 despite the fact
that there were less than a hundred eating the lunch. One woman made over 200 Lion House rolls which meant we got
to bring a lot home. The meetings
were uplifting and inspiring. A
professional job was done with a booklet describing the meeting and copies of
talks and other important talks included in the booklet.
The
next day I sucked in my breath, took a giant leap of faith, and went on a new
subway route by myself, that situation happening for the 1st
time. I needed to get to a hair
salon called the High Horse salon and get a cut by “Martha.” Stupid train driver went 15-20 mph on
too much of the route and caused me to be late. The same route back took 7 minutes less. Any, Martha, who is originally from
Norway and is very blond (you have to understand that “blond” is extremely rare
here) gave me a terrific cut, and a very, very short cut. But, it needed to be that short because
it cost me $65 plus tip!!!!!!!! Gag! I
knew that would be the case but it’s still hard to wrap your mind around
it. So, the cut has to last 2 months
so that I can justify the expensive.
Everyone loves the cut.
That
night Lynn taught Institute and did a very good job. We keep getting new people there, who show up for one week
then never come back again, and that was true again last Wednesday. Everyone seems to enjoy the experience,
but it’s hard for so many to take the time. We took some of the rolls and butter and honey for refreshments
that night, that’s not something we normally do.
Lynn
also had a very important meeting with the Islamic group on Wednesday that
wants to use our Dyker Heights chapel parking lot for their weekly meetings and
other important events for them.
Lynn and the Imams carefully went over many conditions and problems and
came up with a workable solution.
Lynn is so impressed with the head Imam, a highly intelligent man with a
lot of wisdom to boot. Lynn got
off a long email to one of the stake presidency showing what had happened and
asked the man to make it work.
Well, he did. We saw him at
the temple the next day and he thought the parameters that had been hammered
out were very acceptable. He took
Lynn’s proposal to Facilities Management and they also thought it was a great
plan and said to go ahead and implement it. This was a great thing for Lynn—he’s worked so hard getting
the two religions together with such diplomacy and right thinking. You know, it wasn’t an accident that we
just happened to be at the Dyker Heights chapel about two months ago when the
three Imams just happened to show up hoping to find “someone in charge.” Lynn was THE perfect man for the job. He is over talking with the Imams right
now, at their mosque.
Thursday
was such a lovely, lovely day.
Since we couldn’t do our temple service on Tuesday we went Thursday
because it was stake temple day.
Our ward was well represented in the 11 o’clock session—there were ten
of us. I especially enjoyed that
because that is the first time since we’ve been here that we’ve been on a
session with our ward members. Two
of our regulars for Institute came, Elva and Paul, that Lynn and I really would
like to see get married. We don’t
say anything, we just hope. :
) After the session we met with
Pres. Thompson of the stake presidency and talked about Lynn’s email about the
Muslim group, then we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. After that we returned to the temple
for a quick bathroom break and just as we entered the foyer, several ward
members, including Elva and Paul showed up and told us they had a tour of the 6th
level. It has a corridor filled
with art work and other beautiful things, so it was nice chatting with
them.
Lynn
then took me to the High Line trail (had to take a train to get there) to see
the newest park for Manhattan. It
used to be an elevated freight train route that took dirty trains off the
street to get to the warehouses close to the water. It stopped being used in 1970, went into disrepair and was
going to be torn down but there were people who wanted to renovate the
warehouse area and this old line.
So, they did. There are a
lot of new apartment buildings around this line. They cleaned up the metal and painted it. They put down a nice plastic type walk-way
and kept original track and ties off to the side of the walk. On either side of the walk they put in
modern art but best of all, some very thoughtful right thinking people had a
planting strip on either side of the walk filled with local native flowering
plants and trees. It was so
beautiful. The trail is 1 ¼ miles
long and was filled with people doing what we were doing. Lynn had thought that he might bike the
trail, but no way, you couldn’t even jog the trail, just too many walkers.
Lynn
was not done with the day. He went
that evening to the synagogue to listen to a lecture. He told me later that it was extremely difficult to follow
because they were using terms he did not understand. After the hour lecture was over it was time for the men to
discuss the lecture and other things.
As it turns out a culture of the Jews is to debate anything and
everything. It turns out for them
there are no absolutes so even with some absolutes like the existence of God
and the Ten Commandments, all of these things were up for debate. They liked to quote various
philosophical rabbis who had written this or that about a number of different
things. Even when Lynn pointed out
that our church agreed with them that the glory of God was intelligence, they
responded with maybe that’s true, and maybe it’s not. They ended up constantly disagreeing with themselves. Lynn found the whole experience very
frustrating and has decided to cut way back on his visits. I feel very sorry for such people;
there is no anchor in their life except tradition, which is up for heavy
debate. Yuck! Also, the ultra-orthodox have got
themselves painted into tight corners which do not allow them to live very far
outside their culture.
The
next morning was my shopping morning.
It was also a tropical storm day complete with heavy rain and wind. It was also a day that missionaries
asked if I could get some things for them at COSTCO, including a big cooler the
mission would pay for. I was happy
to help, but did smile wryly when I got back and told them I needed to be paid
for pain and suffering when my umbrella turned inside out as I was loading
things in the car. It wasn’t just
the cooler that I got for the missionaries; it was a lot of other things
too. But, hey. We are blessed to have a car, and we’re
here to help.
Friday
morning Lynn reminded me that we had tickets to the ballet. Groan. It was still raining.
But, off we went. Last week
was the opening week for the ballet season, and Lynn had got the tickets
especially for me. We got
dressed up and watched an incredible performance. The New York City Ballet is one of the best in the world and
you could tell. Lynn was just
there to accompany his wife, but it turned out that he loved it as much as I
did. The final performance was a
meeting of the best of ballet and the best of Gershwin combined, the dancing
was choreographed to well-known Gershwin music and worked extremely well. The orchestra was first rate too, as
well as some solo instrumental artists which contributed their expertise while
the dancers danced. One thing
about New York, you do get to see the very best. Just an interesting side note—I wore my tennis shoes over to
the ballet theatre because of all the rain, sure looked funny with my nice
dress, but it was very practical.
I changed into heels just before the last subway stop.
The
next day we went to Prospect Park for an outdoor concert located at the band
shell. Wynston Marsalis was
playing with his jazz band and was doing a concert for kids. Well, the songs the group played
started out as recognized children’s songs, but that quickly disappeared with
all the improv. We were about 30
feet from the stage right in the center--perfect seats. The park had set up folding chairs in
front of the stage. They had also
distributed little bubble blowing bottles to the kids and there were a lot of
bubbles floating around during the performance. Oh my gosh—that group was SO GOOD!! I have never, ever heard trumpeting
like what Wynston did that afternoon, it was way off the charts difficult. I have heard him play before on TV but
there was nothing like what we heard, on television. He believes strongly in children’s education and especially
music education so his group goes around to schools etc. to give free performances. So, again, in New York we got the best.
We
had discussed in ward council several weeks ago that it’s been difficult to get
members to the temple because a lot of them that had gone through were not
going back. They were not keeping
a current recommend. Two of the elder’s
quorum presidency did not have a current recommend. Our RS president pointed out that paying tithing was a real
deterrent for people in our ward.
So, one of our sweet sisters gave one of the best talks on tithing I
have ever heard this past Sunday, another lady talked about the sanctifying
properties of sacrifice to the Lord.
Two terrific talks.
We
then went with the missionaries from our district to the Soletas to one of
their barbeque dinners. They are
so good to feed us. Br. Soleta
does as much work on the food as his wife. We had a great time and celebrated a birthday of one of the
Elders.
Monday
was p-day for the missionaries and we had a zone barbeque at the church. We had the grill (one that had been
given to us, a cheap thing that used charcoal) outside under an eave because it
was raining. So, we ate
inside. Unfortunately the zone
leaders aren’t very well organized and all they had thought through was
hamburgers and buns. So, I gave
one a list and told him to go to a local store and buy some things to go with
the hamburgers. Even then, he
didn’t get it right. I went back
and bought chips and donated them to the cause. The missionaries played games while waiting for the burgers
to cook and went back to them after eating.
Everyone
came back that evening for FHE and we played “Jeopardy” Lynn McKell style. He had gospel “answers” and also
“answers” about the local Midwood area that he had learned online. It was an educational experience. We had a good group there that night
because some family members of our Primary President showed up, plus more
missionaries outside of our district.
Our wild and raucous FHE evenings have definitely attracted the
attention of the zone. I had my
hands full earlier in the day so I had to buy cookies for the evening. Keebler works.
Yesterday
was normal temple day. Lynn was
the officiator, I was the follower for the 12:15 session that had missionaries
from our mission going through for their 1 year in the mission temple trip. Next week, we’ll have missionaries go
through for their 2 year trip, because they will be going home in two
weeks. Two of those that are going
home are in our district so it will be hard to see them leave.
We
decided to go to Coney Island to get a Nathan’s hot dog instead of getting off
at the Ditmas train stop. I had
never been there and was hungry for a hot dog. So, we waited for a train that did go to Coney Island (a
half hour wait!) and got a hot dog and fries. Nathan’s is quite the place. We didn’t stick around to see anything but just went
back to the apartment. I’ll go
back when the weather’s nicer to see the ocean.
I
have been preparing to teach Institute tonight. I was so impressed with Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk that I heard
at the women’s meeting, that we are going to discuss it tonight.
A
quick note about Doug Lee, our “wish I could be a Mormon but they won’t let me
join the church because I killed my wife” guy. He’s still hanging in there. He is going to have surgery tomorrow to repair a hernia,
same day surgery. We will be
supplying him with food. He lives
in a very small space with five other men who would just as soon steal all
you’ve got as to look at you. He’s
already had a heavy coat and some very nice boots stolen. He has no microwave, just a tiny spot
in a frig and an oven/stove to cook on.
He expressed to Lynn some heart rending remorse a few days ago which is
a step in the right direction. He
said he was an intelligent highly organized person who many years ago let those
two attributes go for one minute and has paid a heavy, heavy, heavy price for a
terrible decision. Up until now,
he’s blamed what he has done on “I just made a human mistake.” He has looked lately like a broken old
man. He thought he could
manipulate the church to do what he wanted them to do, but has found out this
is one institution that can’t be manipulated, an idea completely foreign to
him. We hope all goes well with
the surgery.
Grateful
for the gospel. Grateful for our
opportunity to serve this ward.
Grateful to be parents to the missionaries. Grateful for the atonement of Christ and the truths revealed
to Joseph Smith. When you see the
effects of the lack of the gospel in people’s lives, you then understand how
richly blessed you are.
I
wish all our sons special love and hope you have a great Father’s Day. You are all great men and my love for
you is beyond words to describe—my children mean everything to me.
Love to you all—Kathy/Mom
